HockeyINJURY ENDS BURE'S SEASON: The first half of Pavel Bure's NHL season was spent waiting for Vancouver to trade him. Knee surgery brought it to a premature end.
And there's no guarantee the Florida Panthers' franchise player will be ready for the start of training camp next September.
Bure underwent surgery Monday to replace the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, the second time in less than four years that he has faced such an operation.
Dr. James Andrews performed the surgery using a portion of Bure's patellar tendon as a substitute. At least six months of rehabilitation will be needed to bring the knee back to full strength.
Basketball
MARQUETTE PICKS COACH: Tom Crean, an assistant coach at Michigan State, will be introduced as Marquette's new head coach Tuesday, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
Crean, 32, would replace Mike Deane, who was fired March 5, two days after the Golden Eagles ended their season with a first-round loss in the Conference USA tournament.
Marquette was 14-15 last season, the first losing season under Deane, whose overall record with the Golden Eagles was 100-55.
NBA PLAYER OF WEEK: Orlando Magic guard Darrell Armstrong was named the National Basketball Association Player of the Week, even though he didn't start a game.
Armstrong led the Magic to a 3-1 record by averaging 22.3 points, 4.8 assists, 3.5 rebounds and 3.5 steals in games played from March 22 through Sunday.
Among the best sixth men in the league, Armstrong also shot 55 percent from the field and 96 percent from the free-throw line.
For the season, Armstrong leads all players who haven't started a game in points, assists and steals. He's averaging 13.1 points, 5.9 rebounds and 5.4 assists for the Magic, who lead the Atlantic division with a 21-9 record.
Golf
DUVAL IS NO. 1: David Duval became the No. 1 golfer in the world after winning the Players Championship on Sunday, taking over from fellow American Tiger Woods in the weekly rankings.
The 27-year-old Duval, who lives in nearby Jacksonville, Florida, ended Woods's 41-week reign at the top with his third tournament victory of 1999. He's now won 10 of his last 33 events.
Duval is the 11th player to head the rankings since they started 13 years ago. He's the only top-ranked player never to have won a Major tournament, though Ian Woosnam and Fred Couples reached the No. 1 spot before winning the Masters.
Tennis
SAMPRAS BACK ON TOP: Pete Sampras reclaimed the No. 1 spot in the Association of Tennis Professionals' world rankings to move within seven weeks of Ivan Lendl's record of 270 weeks at the top.
The 27-year-old Sampras recaptured the top ranking he lost to Spain's Carlos Moya two weeks ago by reaching the quarterfinals of the Lipton Championships in Key Biscayne, Florida last week. Moya lost to unseeded Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean in the fourth round.
Sampras is five weeks away from Jimmy Connors's mark of 268 weeks as No. 1 and is skipping America's Davis Cup matches to concentrate on keeping his position atop the rankings.
HINGIS STILL IN FRONT: Martina Hingis remained on top of the Women's Tennis Association's weekly rankings after reaching the semifinals of the Lipton Championships in Florida.
The 18-year-old from Switzerland stayed ahead of Lindsay Davenport and Monica Seles of the U.S. and Jana Novotna of the Czech Republic in an unchanged top four.
Former No. 1 Steffi Graf jumped two places to move above Venus Williams into fifth, even though she lost to the 18-year-old Williams in the semifinals.